May 25 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea broadcast a pop song extolling freedom of choice and a warning on the dangers of overeating into North Korea, ending a six-year moratorium on propaganda in retaliation for the sinking of a warship.
The four-hour radio program yesterday evening included a speech by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak outlining his government’s response to the March 26 sinking, which an international panel concluded was caused by a North Korean torpedo. The South, which lost 46 sailors in the attack, will seek more United Nations Security Council sanctions, halt most trade, and bar North Korean vessels from its waters.
“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again,” Lee said yesterday. “Now, things are different.”
Lee’s cutting of ties will increase North Korea’s economic dependency on China, which has yet to accept the panel’s findings and yesterday urged all sides to remain “coolheaded.” Kim Jong Il’s regime said it will shell South Korean positions that use loudspeakers for “psychological warfare,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
South Korea’s won plunged to a 10-month low today as the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim ordered his military to prepare for combat, citing a defector group. The benchmark Kospi index sank as much as 3.5 percent.
‘All-Out War’
North Korea last week threatened “all-out war” for any punitive action taken against its regime.
Lee’s actions mark “the end of an era of reconciliation and the beginning of a new Cold War,” said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul. “China will resist joining international condemnation of North Korea. It doesn’t need to be seen as bending to U.S. pressure.”
The propaganda broadcast made on FM radio began at 6 p.m. local time yesterday when a woman anchor announced what she called the “voice of freedom.” North Korean listeners were regaled with a song by a South Korean girl band, Four Minute.
In the tune, “Huh,” the band sings: “When I say I want to appear on TV, when I say I want to become prettier, everybody says I can’t do it. Baby, you’re kidding me? I do as I please.”
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea broadcast a pop song extolling freedom of choice and a warning on the dangers of overeating into North Korea, ending a six-year moratorium on propaganda in retaliation for the sinking of a warship.
The four-hour radio program yesterday evening included a speech by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak outlining his government’s response to the March 26 sinking, which an international panel concluded was caused by a North Korean torpedo. The South, which lost 46 sailors in the attack, will seek more United Nations Security Council sanctions, halt most trade, and bar North Korean vessels from its waters.
“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again,” Lee said yesterday. “Now, things are different.”
Lee’s cutting of ties will increase North Korea’s economic dependency on China, which has yet to accept the panel’s findings and yesterday urged all sides to remain “coolheaded.” Kim Jong Il’s regime said it will shell South Korean positions that use loudspeakers for “psychological warfare,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
South Korea’s won plunged to a 10-month low today as the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim ordered his military to prepare for combat, citing a defector group. The benchmark Kospi index sank as much as 3.5 percent.
‘All-Out War’
North Korea last week threatened “all-out war” for any punitive action taken against its regime.
Lee’s actions mark “the end of an era of reconciliation and the beginning of a new Cold War,” said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul. “China will resist joining international condemnation of North Korea. It doesn’t need to be seen as bending to U.S. pressure.”
The propaganda broadcast made on FM radio began at 6 p.m. local time yesterday when a woman anchor announced what she called the “voice of freedom.” North Korean listeners were regaled with a song by a South Korean girl band, Four Minute.
In the tune, “Huh,” the band sings: “When I say I want to appear on TV, when I say I want to become prettier, everybody says I can’t do it. Baby, you’re kidding me? I do as I please.”
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